As you know, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel six bus routes today due to a lack of available staff in our transportation department. As I’m sure you noticed, there have been numerous districts, locally and across the state, that have been struggling to keep adequate levels of staffing. For those school districts and our own, canceling routes only occurs when no other option exists. 

Please understand that, since the start of the school year, we have been making every effort to keep our buses on the road to get our students to and from school. Depending on the day, this often requires substitute drivers, which are in short supply, merging or delaying routes and even putting our bus mechanics on the road. There are many days that our Director of Transportation, Linda Thompson, is filling in on routes as well. It’s all hands on deck at the bus garage every school day. 

Unless something significant changes soon, there is a high probability of more days like today. At this moment, our level of staffing in transportation is as tight as it has ever been. As we have acknowledged numerous times in the recent past, there will be days in which we cannot provide the level of service that our students, staff and parents are accustomed to – today was one of them. That said, our goal is to minimize the burden on all of you as much as we can.

With that in mind, we will always do our best to give as much advance notice as possible when there is a disruption to our service. That said, there are times when we simply do not have advance notice ourselves and an early-morning call must be made.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping our schools open and our buses on the road. 

Finally, if you are looking for a great place to work, we have plenty of full-time, part-time and substitute opportunities all across the District — transportation, food service, custodial, paraprofessional, etc. Click this link for more information.

Have a great weekend,

Matt Wandrie – LCS Superintendent